Cooking prawns is probably one of the quickest easiest things to do in a restaurant, get a hot pan sear on one side for 15 seconds, flip it over, and another 15 seconds, done. This method is very effective, but if you are looking for the best prawns you have ever tried, this is probably not going to get the job done. Prawns are very finicky, in that if you over cook them slightly they are rubber, under cook them, and not quite edible, there is a fine line here where they are absolutely perfect. Now this method I am going to show you isn't exactly the 30 second quick sear, and there is many different stages to the cooking...
I get a lot of people asking me to post dairy free options/substitutes, so here’s a little ace up the sleeve of high end restaurant chefs who want to give you that dairy free ‘wow’ factor. Curing. It is a great way to take humble ingredients, and turn them into something amazing. Curing egg yolks is an easy one, and you can reap your rewards in only four days, and you can't say that for most cured foods. Essentially, you are adding equal parts of salt and sugar, and then whatever aromatics you choose. You are creating a hard cheese like puck, that is similar in flavour to that of a Parmesan cheese, minus the dairy. It is large in...
Demi glace is the base to many of the most classic sauces in french cooking. Demi on its own is a terrific sauce as well. This is the base we use for our braised beef dish at Cacio Pepe. I recommend you read the article on beef stock before reading this, as this sauce is based off a beef brown stock that is made correctly. Anyone that has talked to me about cooking for more than a minute, knows that I throw around the word "classic" all the time. I am all about the classics, and everything should be made a certain way, the original way. This is about one of the only times I would disagree is with this classic sauce....
Here I have an addition to our first stocks blog, where we made a white stock. In this blog I will only highlight the differences, as they are very similar, except for a few alterations to the process. In a brown stock we are using roasted bones, and caramelized vegetables, to make a darker, more concentrated stock. Dark stocks are broken down into these 4 categories; bones/shells, vegetables, aromatics, alcohol. Bones/Shells; Bones; Beef, veal, chicken, turkey, duck, pork, lamb, fish, game birds, none (vegetable stock) Shells; Lobster, prawns, crab. Vegetables; Onion, carrot, celery, garlic, mushroom, shallots, celeriac, leeks, tomato, tomato paste. Aromatics; Parsley, thyme, bay leaves, black peppercorn. Alcohol; Red wine, white wine, brandy, vermouth. Highlighted above are the ingredients used in this post...
*PLEASE READ "DEBONING A CHICKEN" BLOG FIRST. THIS IS AN ADDITION TO THAT* Duck has become a bit of a unknown protein to the home cook, as you can usually only buy it at the supermarket whole, frozen, and the thought of dealing with that for most people is a little daunting. When you do find stores where you can buy just the breast (which is the easiest to prepare) it will usually cost you a good amount. As we talked about in earlier blogs, the easier something is to prepare the more they will charge you for it; this is where knowing a butchery technique comes in handy. You can usually buy the whole duck for less than it...
